IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?Media Evaluation. Part 1.

AT A TECHNICAL LEVEL, HOW WELL DID YOU OBSERVE THE CONVENTIONS OF CONTINUITY, AND THE LANGUAGE OF FILM AND EDITING?

At a technical level, we are aware and understand the conventions of continuity. We understand that continuity, in most films is a logical coherence, which is achieved by cutting to continuity, to emphasise a smooth transition of time and space. It is used to show fluidity within a variety of shots, to bond the shots together to create a seamless look. During our genre research, we looked into documentary style films, as we wanted to approach our film in this way. Upon this research, we began looking into certain character interviews, which were used in the film and continuity conventions such as the 180-degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match on action shots were not a prominent feature within the shots. Therefore, due to the nature and conventions of our film, stylistically we haven’t necessarily adhered to the conventions of continuity. We used a variety of single shots, which were all cut to create a fast pace. Instead, to create intensity, we used a fade to black and integrated text to move the films story line forward.

IN TERMS OF CONTENT, HOW DOES YOUR FILM REFLECT OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS OF THE GENRE YOU ARE WORKING WITH? DOES IT FULFIL THE NATURE OF THE FILM GENRE OR WILL IT SUBVERT THE EXPECTATIONS DELIBERATELY?

In terms of content, our film both reflects and challenges the conventions of the genre we were working with. We integrated both the thriller and horror genre to create a mysterious and supernatural tone, yet still conforming to the realist aspect, which is surrounded by the thriller genre. In the pre-production process, we decided to create a film in a documentary form; to create a realistic stance on our film and to integrate a horror link to make the film more intense and scarier due to its realistic content. Upon this decision, we undertook some genre research by watching similar documentary style films, such as ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘The Devil Inside” and so we could understand the production and the storyline of a documentary style film, which we could apply to our own. I also undertook some contextual research into Vampires and the conventions and codes surrounding them. However, we decided against fulfilling the nature of our chosen genre, we felt that using such codes and conventions relating to vampires would not create a mysterious stance on the film and would not create intensity; therefore we decided to subvert expectations deliberately to make the audience ask more questions. We wanted to make our main character as ‘normal’ as possible, progressing to a more sinister and questionable character.

ARE THERE ANY ELEMENTS OF DELIBERATE PASTICHE OR PARODY, WHERE YOU ‘PLAY’ WITH THE GENRE’S CODES AND HISTORY? ARE THERE ANY INTERTEXUAL MOMENTS WHERE YOU HINT AT A REFERENCE AT ANOTHER FILM?

There are some pastiche elements within our film, which we thought would be an effective way to move our story forward to create suspense. Like many documentary style films, there are uses of real quotes from philosophers and educates which are applied to emphasise the realist aspects. For example, in the 2013 film, Dark Skies, the quote “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." This works really well in influencing the audience to question the supernatural and its existence, therefore we felt this would be an effective idea to use in our film.

WHAT KINDS OF AUDIENCE PLEASURE ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVIDE, AND HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU THAT YOU HAVE ACHIEVED THIS?

Richard Dyer’s theory of entertainment and utopia, discusses the use of ‘utopianism’ in film, television and mass entertainment. He explained that the audience would gain pleasure from 5 “Utopian Solutions” to their everyday problems. Dyer characterises utopia as “the image of ‘something better’ to escape into, or something we want deeply that our day-to-day lives don’t provide. In contrast to the tensions and inadequacies of contemporary life, utopia offers energy, abundance, transparency, intensity and community. Intensity is one of the satisfactions than an audience will receive whilst watching our film. For example, we create intensity through non-diegetic sound, which is emphasised through text and voice-overs to create a more personal relationship with the character. Although it is not specifically exciting and thrilling, through the interviews and the way we edited, we built up a thicker story surrounding the character and leaves the audience asking for more. The way we used short, single shots moves the pace forward which is also effective in creating intensity. Transparency is also used within our film where we create a relationship with the character through voiceovers. The voiceovers are important to dramatize the plot; our film gives a brief outlook on ‘Alice’s’ life, outlining childhood problems through a personal voice-account, effectively creating sympathy. Furthermore, the interviews create moods where the audience can see personal accounts where different moods and approaches to the problem are shown. For example, we see a sad yet happy account of Alice’s mother, who although is upset by Alice’s ‘problem’ seems happy to reminisce of her childhood memories, which could affect the adult audience. Finally, community is used to give the audience pleasure where we show family and friends. We see short single shots of interviews of the main characters surrounding families, which is effective in creating relationships.